Swift Transportation Company, Inc. - Phoenix, Az.

I came to truck driving from first, hospitality, where I got my BA by making sacrifices doing crappy jobs to get by. later I drove taxicabs, then drive-away companies and finally a CDL school with a subsequent job at Swift. None of the driving jobs ever gave me the impression that drivers are given control over much of anything. Of course, I have also noted that professional driving doesn't really attract the best and brightest in the workforce either, and many are just lazy and looking for maximum money for minimal energy output. C'mon you've seen 'em...packin an extra 30-40lbs and lookin like they've never missed lunch in their life....but anyway...

Seems to me the only way for a driver to have a life is to buy a rig from a dealer, run it like a small business and select loads through a broker and work several brokers at the same time. Like taxi drivers, a lease or company position is a bet, and the house always wins.

I no longer drive trucks but I might go back to it someday in the control context previously described. My point is that if a driver wants to change their lot in life, at some point you have to get off your lazy ### and make sacrifices to gain knowledge and skills that can give you more choices for work. If you are too stupid to see that you deserve the hell you live with under the thumb of companies like Swift.

 

I didn't know we were all numbers here. Hail every time I go into my home terminal, everyone calls me by my name to say hey to me. Some even call me by my last name. Most of the other drivers are given the same respect.As for the rest of your post, you're pretty much dead on.

Can't really go by the words of a few people who have a personal vendetta against Swift. For every bad "story" you read or hear, there are good ones to cancel them out. I've been there three years and would have to be fired before I leave.

If it's hell under the "thumb" of Swift, then I'm going to remain a bad boy because I having no problems at all. And my Dean's List and honor roll certificates from the college I graduated from (with a computer degree) would argue my intelligence level.

 

From RockPanther:

What did you learn about hospitality?

Soooooo, you did crappy jobs to get your B.A., then made a career leap into the world of taxi-cabs and drive-away companies. Upward mobility at its finest, huh?

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" was not required reading for your B.A. I would bet.

I'm hip!

There's an "Eat 'Til You Puke" lunch buffet at the local VFW today, could I start skipping lunches tommorrow....I promise!!!

Oh goody!

 

The company employees Always called me by first name !!

Unfortunatly Dick was NOT my first name........

 

LOLOL!!! Good call!

 

I wish to respond to this as the statement made above about this profession doesn't really attract the best and the brightest. I beg to differ with you.
I have a degree in law, ran my own business for 15 years. It's not like I woke up one day and said to myself I wanted to be a truck driver. My father worked for Southern Pacific Railroad for 35 years, then he worked trucking companies after his retirement from the railroad. He was a marketing manager for many years after that. It was my father who gave me the thumbs up to take on truck driving...since I love very much to do two things...travel and make money. If it wasn't for my father I would more than likely be some poor broke lady living off of welfare while you pay the taxes. I had two children to support and trucking was something that kept the kids fed.
Many times I got ridiculed for being a truck driver because I was a woman, but I set it straight with many that if they have a problem with me being a truck driver..then I can go home, apply for welfare and let someone else support me. I never heard another word about it.
While out on the road..I met many very educated drivers, I met one driver who's name on the CB was "History" the reason he had that name..he was a history teacher for a high school, and during the summer months he would drive truck so he could travel.
So no...not everyone is some lazy, uneducated overfed driver you meet. Lazy was far from my mind since I unloaded my own trailers and took walks after eating a large salad for dinner.
My brothers who are highly educated with college degrees...they both look up to me because I did things they could never imagine doing...I remember my oldest brother telling me that he wouldn't even know where to start when driving a huge truck like I did.
Want my most honest opinion...it takes one hell of a person to get behind the wheel of a big rig and to safely deliver loads. Working long hours with hardly any sleep, trying to meet dealines...etc.
Oh..and just to let you know...I am not currently driving because my husband fell seriously ill, had a heart attack and diabetes..so he's unable to drive anymore. So I must spend my days looking after him. But I am not sitting on my butt doing nothing...got another degree in Property Management and now I am working that full time. I might one day return to the road as I do miss it. But I do love to also keep in touch with my fellow drivers.

 

As with any any social environment there are exceptions to the norms. I am quite aware that many drivers are as I, educated professionals who enjoy the lifestyle of getting paid to travel. It is the good drivers who work in taxicabs that motivate my efforts to launch a new taxi system. They will have a safer environment, cut overall mileage by as much as 40% and signal reform that eliminates private fleet operator control. However, as a final gift to my peers in the restaurant business, the system shifts focus out of the realm of DOT thinking into the realm of the hospitality industry by putting service control into the back seat where it belongs. My response here was only in response to a large number of drivers who comment on these pages in the venacular of whining children upset with choices they make. My choice for going over the road in drive away was for research where I discovered I enjoyed most of the elements of that life. When I graduated to big trucks though, I wasn't prepared for the demands being imposed by Swift in regards to how and where my off-time would occur. I applaud the many drivers who do carry advanced credentials in education and choose to go out on these ever more dangerous highways to move the nations goods. Keep the rubber side down and may the wind be pushin...

 

Very well written. If you desire a future this would be it...

 

As with any "profession" a person must find his niche.I found mine and worked for a small company (<50 trucks) for 10 yrs,until the wheels started to come off and I quit 1 month before the fateful day when the IRS knocked on the bosses door.
I then drove for another small family owned company and found a "home".
25 yrs ago,trucking was fun.We'd get a gang of drivers running together,and could knock out 800-900mi.and deliver the next morning. Before anyone says anything...Yes we were outlaws.We ran hard but we always ran safe and looked out after each other.If one of the trucks brokedown,You'd see all of us beside the road getting out the toolboxes and it always seemed we'd find a way to at least get it running enough to get to the next shop.If someone started getting sleepy, we'd all stop for coffee or we'd all take a nap...then it was back in the saddle again.
Most cops then were different ,too. they'd talk and joke w/ us on the radio...They didnt care if we ran a little fast # night in the open country,hell sometimes they'd run along w/ us..
We loved it and it wasn't work..We get soaking wet,dirty,tired,and disgusted at times ,but it was part of the job.No matter how hard and terrible it got during the week,Friday you were headed home...
Sunday morning would eventually come as always and we'd all gang up again and head up and move em out again...

If you find a job you love,its not a job .It becomes part of you,no matter what you do,you'll always be a "trucker".
An old timer told me once..."Driver,I'm 72 years old and everytime I hear a jake brake doing down a mountain I still get goose bumps"
No matter how much some things change, some always stay the same..

 

i have no choice where i live but to go with swift,prime,usa truck,crst van help me choose?